Birds Flock Together
by Ms.Und3rst00d
Summary: Raven is one of the loners at Titans Tower.  What will happen when a friend from Azarath visits perminantly?  What new information on Raven's father does this friend bring.  RobxOCxRae.  Rated for later chapters.
1. Falcon

This takes place a few months after the end of season 6. I do not own the Teen Titans, but I did make up Falcon and everything about her. Review if you wish. BTW, this is my first fan fic, so don't be too hard on it.

Falcon: Chapter 1

_Azarath_

We come across a girl sitting on a boulder, her face to the wind. Her hair, a light brown with natural red highlights, blows around her like it has a life of its own. Her eyes, such a dark blue that they sometimes appeared black, were closed for the moment. This teen girl levitated in the courtyard, looking quite serene for the amount of trouble that she had caused her guardian, Arella. Her mind however was not nearly as calm as she portrayed herself to be. Who wouldn't be a little nervous after almost being caught doing one of the worst things that was possible for her right now? _I wish that I could go and talk with Raven, even an hour would do me so much good..._ she thought as all the horrors of what she had 'seen' passed through her mind.

"Falcon! What in all of Azar were you thinking! You could have uncovered all of us to Trigon, and then where would we all be?" yelled Arella as she finally came across her target. As much as she hated to admit it, Arella was frightened beyond belief at what her not so young charge had done, but she was also proud. None of the monks of Azarath had ever thought that such a thing could be done, but that didn't matter now. Arella was becoming way too frustrated with Falcon to be able to think straight. In the last week alone, she had caused more mischief than any normal person could ever deal with. And even though Arella was far from normal, she had just about met her limit as well.

Suddenly, an idea dawned on her. Arella was pretty sure that all parties involved would not be too upset at the change, and the remaining monks sure could use a break from the rebellious girl. "You remember my daughter Raven, don't you?" At Falcon's nod, Arella continued, "How about this; Falcon, you know that you have become a liability to us left in Azarath, so to help us figure out how to help you, you are ordered to go down to Earth and stay with Raven until the monks can come up with a better solution. I have a feeling that Raven could use someone to talk to who knows a little more about where she came from right about now. You have 30 minutes to change into something... more Earth-like... before you are requested to leave."

Falcon looked down at her clothed. _Yes! I have an excuse to visit with Raven! But Arella's right, these wouldn't do at all for Earth, not at this time in history. _She had on a dress that was floor length, a pale ivory in color, and had dark blue sapphires embedded into the V-neck collar as well as collars on her long flowing sleeves.. The fabric itself was woven so that the light would reflect and refract off of each individual strand. Falcon also had on a cape made out of the same material that, if she stood still, would camouflage her almost completely into her background. While it was nice to wear on Azarath for the moment, it would hardly work for Earth.

Selecting a form fitting indigo shirt from her closet, Falcon put that on along with a pair of dark blue almost black jeans. To complete the look, she chose some black heeled boots that reflected the color of her eyes. She relaxed with a sigh, for Raven and her to finally see each other again would be like a much-deserved vacation. Arella had no clue how close the two girls really were. It had been almost two years since they had last talked, but that didn't matter to her. They had 'seen' each other much more recently than that. Her 30 minutes being up, Falcon took one last look around the room where she had been staying for more than a lifetime. Then, she phased down to Earth in a dark purple streak.

_Titan's Tower_

Things were going on as a usual afternoon in the Tower. Robin was on the computer, looking for some more information on any of the many villains that could possibly be roaming around Jump City. Starfire was cooking up some inedible Tamarainian food, talking to herself and being completely lost in thought. Beast Boy and Cyborg were racing each other on the Xbox 360 arguing over who had won the last match. Cyborg had technically won, but as always, Beast Boy argued that he had cheated. Raven was levitating by the windows in a meditative pose, reading one of her many ancient books.

That is, until an uninvited guest phased into the room right in front of the Xbox with a slight hiss. _Oops, I didn't mean to get between these two and their game..._ "Hey, get out of the way!" shouted Beast Boy, attempting to see around the girl that had just appeared.

"Wait, What? How did you get in here?!?!" Cyborg yelled out, trying to cover his shock. He couldn't believe that someone could just appear in their living room without him knowing about it.

The rest of the people in the room didn't notice the commotion, being used to BB and Cy screeching whenever they played anything. Stepping lightly out of the way, the intruder faced Raven and said her name in a reproving sort of voice. Raven ignored her, not realizing who it was. Sighing, the girl repeated above the noise in the room, "Hey Roth! Would you get your head out of that book at least long enough to look at me? Your back isn't your best side, you know."

With that, everyone in the room turned to stare at whoever it was who had shown up in their living room. That is, except the one whose name had been called. Still levitating, Raven uncurled her legs and slowly executed an about face. Seeing who was there, her face was covered in complete amazement. "Fal! Is it really you?"

That was all that anyone looking on could understand. Raven rushed at her long gone friend and put her hands on her shoulders. Falcon repeated the gesture, and the two began to spin in an ever faster spiral upwards until they had gone through the ceiling onto the roof. Everyone in the living room was dumb with disbelief, jaws hanging all the way down to their knees. Beast Boy was the first to break that amazed silence. "Dude! What just happened?"

_The Roof_

Falcon's pure, high laughter floated over Raven like a cool refreshing breeze. "...And here I thought that you were ignoring me. Really, you should get your head out of your books more often, you may see some interesting things." said Falcon in a teasing, sarcastic voice.

"Why are you down here? I mean, I'm very glad to see you, but is there an explanation behind this that I should know about?" asked Raven, a questioning look in her eyes. Falcon sighed and sat down with her legs over the edge of the roof. _How to begin..._

"Well, do you remember that vision that Arella showed you of Azarath, where Trigon came and destroyed the place?" Raven joined Falcon in her position over the edge and nodded. "You see, that was a vision of what would happen in the future. Since Arella had a slight bond with Trigon, she was able to see that vision and warn you and the rest of the people on Azarath with it. That's why you didn't see anyone but Arella and her doves when you returned for help. All people who were able to leave the planet did, and those who couldn't, Arella changed into doves. Trigon wouldn't turn her or her doves into stone because if he did, then you would become much more powerful and could find him and defeat him utterly."

Falcon halted her story and stared off into the sky for a moment. Collecting herself, she continued, prepared to tell the whole story without stopping again. "When Arella was letting people know about what was going to happen, I was skipping meditation class. You know how hard it can be to concentrate in that classroom. I think that the teacher just is there to fall asleep. Nobody even pays any bit of attention to him."

"Yeah, it's next to impossible for you to concentrate no matter what, but you should know better than to not do your meditating I mean, remember what happened last time when you were dared to go a week without it?" exclaimed Raven. "I had to spend about three whole days getting you under control and fixing the mess you made!"

"That's not quite what I said. I said that I skipped the class, not that I skipped meditating. I transported myself over to our old face off arena and meditated, sending my soul-self to go and see what you and the Titans were up to." At the astonished look on Raven's face, Falcon chuckled, "Did you think that I could forget about you after being your true opponent for 10 years just because you left the planet for two years? I've been doing that since the week after you left."

"Anyway, I must have stayed like that for longer than normal, because while my soul was outside my body, Trigon came and destroyed the place. Since my soul was down here, it was unharmed, but my body was turned to rock. When I tried to send my soul self back, it didn't exactly work. Somehow, I ended up in Trigon's body, not my own. For almost a minute, I didn't know what was happening, all of this information was coming at me, and I saw my own body turned to stone. Finally I figured out what had happened, and as quickly as I could without thinking anything, I came back down to Earth. I figured that might be more interesting and the safest place for me at the moment."

With an ashamed expression, Falcon continued. "Since Arella hadn't found me to warn me about Trigon, she and her birds scanned all of Azarath to try to find my body. One of the monks she had saved knew a spell to reverse the process that made me become stone. It worked to an extent, or so they thought. My body was no longer stone, but it was apparently lifeless. Arella was in one of her moods, so she screamed out my name as a thought. I couldn't help but hear it and return to Azarath, trying to figure out what I had done wrong this time.. Being able to watch you for the day or so that it took them to find my body was almost worth the many lectures that I had to deal with." Falcon smiled ruefully, _How can I tell her about what I learned in Trigon's mind?_

"Pretty soon, your mom got tired of dealing with me, and thought that maybe I could work out some of my mischief here on Earth where it wouldn't cause her so many headaches. Or at least that's what I think. But Raven," started Falcon, her voice becoming quiet and urgent, "there's something that you need to know. When I was in Trigon's mind, I saw a plan of his. On your next birthday, there will be another line up of the planets, but on a different galaxy. He's planning on tricking someone you trust into taking you there so he can destroy those planets and you once and for all. Trigon's positive of success, since he won't drag your friends along. I just wanted to warn you. Tell the other Titans if you wish, but please think up a plan to stop it. I wouldn't be able to survive in a dimension without you. You know that."

Raven stared at her friend for a moment, then threw her arms around her. "You have no clue how happy I am to have you back." Standing up quickly, as if worried that someone had seen her actually hug someone, Raven cleared her throat and said, "Well, now that I know why you would just come here and scare my friends like that, maybe we should go down and explain to them who the hell you are. You know they aren't used to strange visitors from Azarath who I actually am happy to see."

Falcon grew still as she heard what Raven had said. "Let me do most of the explaining. If your friend Starfire finds out what my race is, there's a good chance that you'll have a fight on your hands. Just to let you know." Smiling a bit, she added, "You also might want to let them know that I plan on being here for a while. Just do that in a... not normal way."

_Titan's Tower _

When Raven and Falcon phased back down into the livingroom, they were greeted by quite a racket. _I guess my arrival and Raven's reaction have stirred up a few questions. This shall be interesting._ Knowing that voice would do no good with the amount of noise going around, Falcon cleared her throat as a thought that everyone heard in their mind. Luckily, nobody seemed to realize that they hadn't heard it with their ears, and silence fell over the group. The Titan's looked to Robin to see what he would say about this sudden intrusion. Unfortunately, he was at a loss for words.

Smiling slightly, Falcon introduced herself. "Hey, my name's Falcon, and I guess you could call me a... friend of Raven's from Azarath. Her mom got tired of having me around, so she figured that she could get a vacation from me by sending me here to stay with you guys for a while. Let me see, You would be Robin, Starfire, Beast Boy, and Cyborg. You guys make a pretty good team, and I'm guessing that you all will have some questions for me."

The Titan's looked even more shocked than they had when they had seen the two of them greet one another._**I've never seen all of them so amazed before **_thought Raven to herself. They all looked so comical, that she just burst out laughing. Which of course, shocked her teammates even more.

"Raven can laugh?" questioned Beast Boy. Glaring at Falcon, he accused, "Did you replace Raven with a clone or something? I don't see anything breaking or being moved around by her powers."

Shaking her head, Raven explained, "Falcon's my true opponent. Around her, I can show emotion and nothing will happen with my powers." _**Care to explain? They might find it a little strange. **_ thought Raven to Falcon.

"Basically, on Azarath, we have a fight arena where opponents can attack each other without worrying about outside interference. A true opponent is someone who is your same level of skill in fighting, and they stay that way for lifetimes. The fight arena is used to hone our skills in battle against someone who we can use the full range of our talents against without hurting them. I'm sure that you've heard that Azarath is a supposedly peaceful place."

Turning to Raven, she complained, "Since you haven't been there for two years, I've had nobody to fight. Have you even shown your team all of the stuff you can do?" At Raven's down turned head, Falcon sighed, "I thought not. I've heard that you have a training course around here. Do you think that it would be ok if Raven and I used it for a fight tomorrow?"

Robin finally seemed to have taken all of the sudden information in. "So, you'll be around here for a while Falcon?" When she nodded, Robin smiled. "Then that will give us a chance to see what you can do. Maybe for the amount of time you're here, you could be on the team with us. Could you explain a bit about your powers?"

Falcon gave Raven a side glance. _Watch Starfire, and if she starts to look like she may attack, please put a force field around her. We don't want this to get ugly. _"Sure, but it may take a while. First, understand that the brain is very much like a computer. People can hack into it, learning the life history of the person whose brain it is. Depending on the hacker, it is also possible to make the person do things by basically typing in the right commands. When I was in my first lifetime, hacking into others brains was my main talent. I didn't use it very often, just because I feel that a person's mind should usually be their own sanctuary, and that it shouldn't be intruded on without just cause." Falcon glanced around the room to see how the Titans were taking this news. _So far, so good..._

"I had one other main talent, and it's been strengthened throughout my lifetimes. If I come in contact with a person, whether physically or by touching their mind, I can duplicate their powers for as long as I remain in contact with them. The more frequently I come in contact with the person, the more ability I have to duplicate their power. For example, I've known Raven and have fought her almost constantly for 10 years before she left Azarath, so I basically have powers exactly like hers ingrained into my DNA, or at least that is something like what happens. If I absorbed my body into someone else, say Beast Boy, for maybe 7 minutes, then I would be also able to shape shift into animals for approximately a day. So, my powers really depend on who I've been in contact with."

"What do you mean by lifetimes?" queried Robin. "Don't people just have one life?"

"Most people do," responded Falcon, "but you see, followers of Azar have seemingly endless lifetimes. Take Raven for example. You saw her obliterated when Trigon used her as a portal, but later found her as a younger version of herself with basically no memory until you started telling her about her life. That's what our lifetimes are like; if we 'die', then we return to a child version of our self and can only remember what was before that by someone telling us a little bit about what our life was like. Does that make any sense to you?"

Cyborg nodded, "I've heard rumors about something like that before I joined the Titans. So, are you originally from Azarath? Raven's told us that it's been used as a refuge from just about everything."

_OK Raven, Starfire's probably gonna get really mad pretty soon, so pay attention to her please! _"Actually, I'm not exactly from Azarath, but one of the nearby planets. My ancestors were actually brought into existence on Starfire's home planet. Things got kind of..." Falcon's explanation got cut off by Starfire shooting out starbolts from her hands. Almost instantaneously, Raven's force field was surrounding her alien friend and neutralizing her bolts. Robin, Cyborg, and Beast Boy looked from Falcon to Starfire to Raven, then back to Star.

"You are not a friend, just a (insert Tamaranian insult) Soul Eater!"


	2. Next day

**DISCLAIMER: **Still don't own... (duh!)_  
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_Titans Tower_

"Star's right, my race is known as Soul Eaters, and Tamaranians and Soul Eaters go back a long way. Soul Eaters were one of an erratic sorcerer's experiments in trying to make a race that would utterly destroy the humans on Earth and then all other life in all dimensions that he was able to project them to. So, when we were created, he put the three or so Soul Eaters that he had developed on half of Tamaran as a test case. Unfortunately, one of the Soul Eaters turned around and ate his soul right after being deposited on the planet." Beast Boy gulped.

"At first, it went pretty well. These Soul Eaters only needed to feed once a year, and they reproduced very slowly, maybe one child every 14 years. However, something happened to make them feed more often. The more souls they feasted on, the more their minds thought they needed. Sadly, the Tamaranians were the only people on the planet whose souls these Soul Eaters could digest. It basically turned into the most devastating war Tamaranians have ever faced. To protect themselves from extinction, they had to get rid of the menace, but any time they got anywhere near the Soul Eaters, their soul would be eaten. Eventually, only four Tamaranians were left alive. See why Star started to attack me?"

Cyborg was puzzled. "Then how did the Star's people stop the attacks? I haven't come across this story in any of the history I've read, and I've just scanned the entire database from my home planet. That is a whole lot of information to go through."

Falcon smiled sadly. "You probably didn't find it because there were enough arguments about what was the truth in the battle. Now it is basically seen as a myth to warn Tamaranian children and a story to fuel the rage of young Soul Eaters. You see, neither side lost or won, so both of our people have a slightly different version of what happened. Oh, and the remaining Tamaranians launched a spaceship at half of their planet that would divide the planet and force the two halves away from each other. It actually worked. But what Starfire and the rest of her people don't know is that there's more to the story." Starfire's eyes perked with interest as the green fire in them dimmed.

"One of the Soul Eaters that got blasted away actually never had even thought of inhaling a Tamaran soul. The idea was repulsive to him, so he trained his body to survive on the souls of the natural animals. He had almost died many times while his body adjusted to the different diet than it was meant to have. Unfortunately, none of the others of his race had mastered the skill. To keep everyone from dying, this man figured out how to operate the spaceship. It surprisingly hadn't been too damaged by the crash, and could still fly." Falcon's eyes grew distant as she retold the story of the nameless Soul Eater.

"When the man could fully control the spaceship, he took a census of how many Soul Eaters there were. When he got the count, he flew down to Earth, which was the closest planet with humanoid life, and took the same number of humans as there were Soul Eaters back with him on the ship. He was careful to take only the ones that didn't want to continue their life, that were suicidal, depressed, or had severe disabilities that would make it very hard for them to fully enjoy life. He didn't take one for himself. This guy continued to do this every year, until one year, he found the woman of his dreams."

Beast Boy gave Falcon a dubious look. "I thought you said that if the guy got anywhere near human people, he would eat their soul!" He shivered. "What kind of woman would want him?"

Raven saw the laughter in her friend's eyes as she got ready to explain. "This guy had been denying the need to eat humanistic souls for so long that he wasn't able to do that anymore. Anyway, when the man brought back the other people for the Soul Eaters, he took the woman back with him, with her permission. He hid her from the others and eventually had a boy with her. This boy had all the characteristics of Soul Eaters, except for the fact that he could eat food." At their questioning looks, Starfire spoke up.

"It is commonly known on my planet that Soul Eaters are unable to consume any kind of food other than souls as it poisons them."

"Exactly Star. Eventually the boy's mother died, and his father left to take her body to a far distant planet. He never returned. Later on, the boy grew up and had his own kids. Now, 20 of all of this Soul Eater's offspring are unable to eat souls, but eat normal food instead. I'm one of those 20." _Raven, you can take your force field off of Starfire now. Thanks._

_**Welcome**_"Would you like to see me eat food, Starfire? Will that convince you?" questioned Falcon. She so did not want for the alien girl to be prejudiced against her forever. Falcon was unprepared for her response, however.

Star flew up to her and pulled her into a bone crushing hug. "I am already convinced, Friend Falcon. You need not convince me of anything. Maybe you will be easier to take to the mall of shopping than Friend Raven!" Star stated gleefully. "We could also do the 'girl time' and the painting of the toe nails and talk the girl talk and..."

"Star... can't breathe..." struggled this newfound friend. Looking embarrassed, Star let her go and floated back a few paces. All of the other titans except Raven sported wide-eyed looks at the end of the story. Silence reigned for a few minutes.

Looking outside, Raven broke the silence by noting, "It's getting late, we should get to our rooms. Falcon, you can stay in my room until we can get you one of your own. If you really managed to piss my mom off that bad, I think that you'll be here for at least a year." With that, the two of them joined hands and phased over to Raven's room. In a daze, the remaining four titans made their way to their own rooms, wondering what adventures the next day would have in store for them.

_Titans Tower_

The next morning, everything went as normal. Robin was the first one up, and made himself a healthy breakfast before heading down to the gym to train. Beast Boy and Cyborg came in a little later and had their normal tofu/meat debate, while Starfire entered and tried to cook some traditional Tamaranian food. The two boys stopped arguing long enough to convince her otherwise. The only thing missing was Raven's morning cup of herbal tea. Nobody was too worried however, until they realized that it was almost four in the afternoon and neither Raven or Falcon had shown up anywhere. _Why would Falcon ask to use the training course for a fight this afternoon if she and Raven planned to disappear. Neither one showed up on the scanners anywhere inside the tower..._ thought Robin, trying to figure out why he was so concerned about where this friend of Raven's had gone. _Oh well, as much as I hate to admit it, the best thing to do would be to wait for them to show up._

Luckily, he didn't have to wait long. Within 10 minutes, Raven and Falcon phased through the floor, startling Star, who happened to be almost in the exact spot where they had appeared. "Hey Robin," started Falcon with a relaxed grin on her face, "think that Raven and I could use the training course now that we've had time to warm up?" Looking around the room at her friends, Raven added, "Of course you guys can come and watch too, just be prepared, our longest fight has been a little over a full day long, and the shortest was about nine hours. It might not be very interesting."

"Like I would want to miss this!" exclaimed Cy as he jumped off the couch where he and BB had been playing their Xbox, who knows which game this time. Raven and Falcon just glanced at each other slyly, an exact mirror image of their expressions. Synchronized, they turned and made their way down to the first level of Titans Tower.

When they got there, Raven looked around the place, and quickly moved the training equipment over into three of the storage areas located around the area. Turning to Robin, she apologized, "This may get a bit messy, we need a large flat area to fight at our best. It should be quite a show for you." she added, a mischievous light shining in her amethyst eyes. Without another word, she walked away, towards the center of the course. Falcon met her there, standing in a ready yet relaxed stance as she looked Raven in the eyes. "Same reward?" questioned Raven in a voice just loud enough for everyone to hear. At Falcon's nod, the two levitated about two feet off the ground and flew back around 15 feet each.

Hovering there, the two of them moved as if to punch the ground while still leaving the two feet in between their hand and the dirt. Opening the hand that they punched with, their eyes began to blaze white as they raised their hand. As they did that, an oval formed, encompassing them, and it levitated13 feet into the air. They now had their arena boundaries for the fight. _You sure you want to do this Raven? Let them know all of your abilities? __**Don't worry Falcon, I want to do this. It's been long enough, I think I can trust them. **__ OK..._Taking a battle ready stance, they brought their Soul Selves forward, Raven's black power rippling over her skin, eyes still white, while the same happened to Falcon's deep purple power. A fight had begun.

_Earlier in Raven's Room_

_The two longtime friends had talked way into the early morning, telling the other all of the mundane things that had happened in their life. Eventually, they got some sleep, and woke up refreshed at 8:00 that morning. "Hey Fal, maybe you should find a peace offering for Arella, 'cause I think you really frightened her by going into Trigon's mind, no matter how pissed off she seemed to be. It might help you not be so restrained when and if you go back to Azarath."_

_"Good idea Rae, but what sort of thing would I get, I have no idea what sort of thing your mom would like, at least what she doesn't have already." A slow smile started to form on Raven's face. She knew the exact thing that they could get, something that Arella would like, but would also understand that it was a practical joke from her daughter._

_"Well... there is this one book that I think we could get her, that is, if you don't mind dimension hopping a bit with me. I promise we will be back in time for a fight later. If we didn't let the team see that, well, they would miss their fun of watching me beat the crap out of someone that isn't a villain or them."_

_Falcon's eyes grew black and sparkled. "Who says that you'll beat me? Not counting the stalemates, I've won 52 of our fights! I think there's about just an even chance of me winning over you. But yeah, I wouldn't want the team to not be able to see you losing a fight when the reason isn't people or dinosaurs slamming into you."_

_"How would you know about that?" questioned Raven. "I've never seen you down here when we were fighting, in fact, I've only seen you down here on Earth once."_

_"What else is there to do during boring meditation classes and staying in hiding than sending most of your self to Earth to watch your friend fight all of these crazy villains? Anyway, yes, I would like to look for this book with you, but I will only give it to your mom if you write a note and place it somewhere in the book. You've been out of contact with her for too long."_

_"Fine, I will write something to Arella and put it in the book, now lets get going!" With that, Raven grabbed Falcon's arm and dragged her into a portal. Or six, to be exact._

End Flashback

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A/N: Hey guys, if you would let me know of any things you want to see in the fight between Raven and Falcon, that would be great. I'm a little out of ideas...

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	3. What's Slade Up To?

Hey guys, sorry it took me so long to get this up, what can I say? Stupid computers, stupid parents, stupid school... get the picture? Please don't kill me! Anyway...

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Disclaimer: I own Teen Titans just as much as I own anything; not at all. Stupid legal things... 

_The Fight Area_

The two circled each other expectantly, waiting to see who would make the first move. As usual, Falcon moved first, being the less patient one. She morphed into a black wolf with dark purple streaks, and lunged at Raven. Without thinking, Raven wrapped a bubble of dark energy around Falcon and started to shrink the space. Realizing that the two might actually kill each other, Robin yelled at Raven, "What in the world are you thinking?" For the briefest second, she looked at him, and Falcon took that chance to vibrate the molecules of her body so that she could pass through Raven's spell.

When Raven had noticed that Falcon had escaped, she reached her essence out to form tentacles of darkness that would make Falcon experience her deepest fear (as shown in Nevermore and Birthmark). Instead of crying out in horror, Falcon only laughed, "You've used that trick on me so much that I decided to confront all of my fears, so now I'm not afraid of anything." and pulled herself up to Raven's face and kicked it hard.

Her head snapped back, and everyone could hear the bones cracking. It didn't seem to faze her however, and she summoned snakes of darkness that were filled with poison to attack. Falcon froze in place, and to Raven's surprise, let them bite her. Falcon let out a mischievous grin. "In one of my adventures down to Earth, a woman caught my essence, and in turn, my blood became poison to the poisonous." This enraged Raven all the more, who attacked Falcon with a blindingly fast barrage of martial arts, the likes of which the other Titans had never seen before. Falcon put up a thick shield of purple energy, which seemed to cause Raven to pause for a moment. Falcon stopped to catch her breath, but that didn't last long. Raven's chakra began to pulse, then glow as a solid beam shot out of it that pierced through Falcon's shield. Falcon lost her concentration at that, which lowered the shield completely.

Teleporting right in front of Falcon, she attempted to knock her legs out from under her, but it didn't work. The two of them fought, their bodies weaving in and out of each others like a choreographed dance. Every time when one would try to hit the other, be it kick or punch, it would just slide harmlessly by. Falcon was beginning to run just on instinct, so she failed to notice the black hand that sneaked behind her to grab onto her shirt. This surprised Falcon so much that Raven was able to get in two good hits, one to her shoulder and one to her gut, before she noticed it. "So that's how you want to play, is it now?"

Quickly, Falcon built up a thick wall of energy around her, and began to meditate. The skin on her shoulders began to wriggle as if it had a life of its own and wanted to get off of Falcon's body. That was what happened; a little pixie came out of each shoulder, passed through the energy wall (which Raven had been hammering at with magical and physical force), and started to attack Raven's face. Whenever Raven caught one, it would just slip through her fingers and leave ink stains on them and her clothes. Once Falcon was sure that Raven was both cross eyed and deaf (the things were really quite loud), she took off her long sleeved shirt, exposing the tank top that she had underneath, and summoned the creatures back to her skin where they resided as tattoos.

The energy wall began to shatter, and it seemed to bring Raven back to her senses. Chanting something under her breath, Raven brought her right hand down across the left half of her face, and at the same time reached her left hand behind her back to swing both hands to the right side. At once, spikes exploded from the ground and flung themselves at Falcon, who dodged most of them with ease. But the ones that hit her hit hard, crumbling to dust from the force of the impact. Apparently not noticing, Falcon jumped and flipped into the air, landing with her legs wrapped around Raven's neck in a chokehold. In an attempt to get rid of the sudden weight on her neck, Raven began punching and hitting Falcon's sides, making her wheeze. She relinquished her grip on Raven's neck, moving her arms down to her waist to grab on while swinging her legs around to knock Raven over.

She saw that coming and flipped forwards so that Falcon let go and fell on her back. When Falcon didn't move for a minute, Raven went over to her side to check how conscious she was. Before Raven could blink an eye, Falcon morphed herself into a tall and dangerous looking dragon, its eyes gleaming as if lit by an inner fire. "You're out of practice Raven. I should have come down here for a long visit sooner." Falcon's claw was clenching Raven's stomach in an ever-tightening corset. Right before she would have passed out from lack of oxygen, Raven chanted her mantra, causing her body to be encased by her magic, keeping her from further being squished. Falcon yelped as her claw was burned by the feel of the energy that pulsed from the body shield and dropped the offending person.

In a heartbeat, Raven was back on her feet, ready to do battle with the dragon, but could not find Falcon anywhere. A voice came from behind her, "What, looking for your own shadow?" as two hands of purple energy grabbed onto Raven's arms, pulling her down partially into the rock. Phasing out of Raven's shadow, Falcon coughed out, "Degro Infusco Animus" as Raven went limp. After three minutes went by, the Titans were in shock. Robin swung up their on a grappling hook, but Falcon transported him back down to the viewing platform. "She still might wake up in two minutes. We have to knock the other out for five to have it qualify as a win." The ticking of the clock in there became unbearably loud. Eventually, Falcon bent down, put her hand on Raven's pulse, and murmured, "evigilo". In an instant, Raven was back on her feet and the two of them were lowering the arena that they had raised.

They walked back out of the training area and headed up to the living room to get some food, for they had worked up quite an appetite. As Falcon reviewed her performance she thought to herself, _I didn't do too badly, but I'm out of shape. Oh well, since I'm here with Raven, I'll be able to train back up to my previous level. _Raven was thinking along the same lines; **_I didn't do so bad, considering that I've had to hide a lot of my ability from my teammates. I don't want them to ever think that I'm trying to take over Robin's position._**

The other Titans were following the pair in amazed silence. When they were far enough ahead of the others, Falcon thought to Raven, _So, when will I be able to claim my reward? **How about tomorrow? I don't think that my teammates could handle anymore excitement today, and whatever you have in mind will surely be something that I would usually never do. **You can count on that._

_Living Room  
_The Titans and Falcon were ordering Chinese food. It was one of the few things that had enough veggie options for Beast Boy while still having plenty of meat for Cyborg. Raven inwardly shook her head. Sometimes she wondered if the two of them just put up such a fight for show and entertainment.

All of a sudden, the alarm blared. Robin raced over to the computer that was always on crime watch. Forgetting most thoughts about food, everyone else crowded around their leader, except for Falcon. Even though she had hung out with these people in spirit for a few years, she still didn't quite feel like she belonged with them.

"Oh crap. Cinderblock, Overload, Plasmus, and Jinx, Mammoth, and Gismo are all out attacking different parts of the city. We'll have to split up…"

"Wait, Robin." Everyone turned to stare at Falcon. Nobody contradicted Robin; that's why he was the leader. "Slade sent all of these people to have the group split up, each person taking one villain except you and someone else would go after HIVE. Don't do that, split the team up into two groups, but leave yourself out of it so you can be prepared for when Slade tries to attack you." The group, except for Raven, blinked unanimously. Smiling sheepishly, she answered their unspoken question. "I spent a lot of time around psychologists and mind readers, some of their talent has enhanced my own, I guess."

"Well then," started Robin, "I guess we have new information to add to this. Beast Boy, Cyborg, and Starfire, go after Cinderblock, then Plasmus. They're close to each other, and you can defeat them together. Raven and Falcon, you go and start with HIVE, you two could definitely take them down, but they will prove to be the most troublesome. Move on to Overload after you take care of them. Everyone, if your team finishes their villains before the other, go and help them out. When all of you are done, contact me on the communicators so I can tell you where I am. I'll most likely be fighting Slade, if what Falcon tells us is correct, so I'll probably need all the help I can get. Let's go."

_With Falcon and Raven (all 'speaking' is thought-speak between Raven and Falcon)_

The two old friends sped over to the block where Jinx, Mammoth, and Gismo were wrecking havoc, as usual. Raven smiled. 'Since these guys don't know you, and don't know what we can do together, let's hit them hard and unexpected. Just don't kill any of them.'

'Very well, let's go have some fun!' Falcon though gleefully. This day was getting better and better.

They soon came upon the HIVE, and Falcon grinned as she disappeared into the shadows. 'Great thinking, Fal. They don't expect you, so when they only see me, it will lull them into a false sense of security. When they focus on me, knock them out with everything you've got.'

_With Starfire, Beast Boy, and Cyborg_

Cinderblock was doing what he did best, mindlessly destroying buildings. Fortunately, it was only a slight challenge for the three of them to defeat him. Starfire flew around him, alternating between hitting his body with starbolts and his face with beams from her eyes. Meanwhile, Cyborg and Beast Boy were working as a team, aka, Beast Boy turning into a dinosaur and Cyborg hurling him at Cinderblock. After a couple minutes of trying to squash the annoying little alien that was hurting him, Cinderblock got so twisted that he collapsed right in the center of all the rubble he had created.

_With Falcon, Raven, and the HIVE_

The HIVE boys were estatic; they had just pulled off robbing a jewelry store, and they were envisioning the new toys that they could get. Gizmo had stars for eyes thinking about all the new electronics he could buy and make to do his commands. Mammoth was thinking of the new bike that he had been wanting to get... it was BIG and SHINY and RED. All good things in his mind.

Jinx however, was much less excited. She was the one who planned all their missions, so of course she was the only one in that group that had been told by Slade to rob somewhere this afternoon. Somehow, she knew that they would probably not be able to keep any of the things they had helped themselves to. She hadn't been able to help herself from looking over her shoulder the whole time, just waiting for someone to show up, most likely the Teen Titans. Jinx shuddered at the thought.She couldn't stand any of them, except for Raven. Unbeknownst to anyone on either team, the two of them were actually friends, both able to put aside their minor differences to be able to have fun with each other. It was almost necessary; neither one of them had much intelligent conversation or interaction with their own teams. Speaking of the dark empath...

Jinx felt, more than saw, the form of Raven fly over to where the HIVE was. Jinx sighed inwardly. It looked like Raven was the only Titan sent to deal with them, making it impossible for them to engage in their usual debates while fighting.

Raven smiled at the sight of her friend, both relieved and disappointed that she had to fight her. Relieved, since it was an intellectual fight that they usually had, with just enough real fighting to make it believable, and disappointed since it meant that there was a real chance that this time Jinx would actually get hurt. Raven shook her head to clear it of that thought; no need to go regretting taking Falcon along with her. 'Falcon, wait until I let you know that it's ok to attack. I want them to be very comfortable before you come out.'

Raven heard a light laughing sound filter through her mind. 'So you basically want me to wait till they beat you up to show myself Roth? Even I don't want to get rid of you that bad, no, I'll just wait until I think it's a good time to attack, my sense of timing has always been better than yours anyway.'

Raven snorted. 'You'll never let me forget that _one _time, will you?'

'One time? It was more like five...' Raven inwardly laughed at that, then focused herself on finding the pesky kid with the terrible insults. _Ah, there you are..._ She let her powers encase the little backpack that he had on him, successfully jamming all of the circuts and wireless transmittions. The whining of the machine gave her away to the HIVE members, though she was sure that Jinx had noticed her before, but was waiting for her to make the first move. As soon as they had all focused on her, all of them heard waht sounded to be a miniature explosion in their heads, making them sink to the floor unconsious. Raven looked down the street to where Falcon was standing. 'And here I thought you were going to let me do some fighting.'

'With your crazy mental status right now, not a chance.' Teased Falcon. Even from this far away, Raven could see the glint in her eyes.

'You're saying something's wrong with my mind?' Replied Raven just as teasingly.

Falcon feigned innocence and surprise. 'What! Do you thing that I could ever say something as terrible and mean as that?'

'Yes'

* * *

A/N Really, I'm very sorry about the insane amount of time that it took me to get this up. I'll be trying to update more quickly, but I'm not promising anything. 


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